Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

June 9, 2012

THUMBS DOWN: You'd think they are old enough to know better, but according to the Center for Disease Control, an alarming number of older teenagers admitted in a survey that they have texted while driving.

What are they thinking?

According to the CDC's teen poll on risky behavior, more than half of high school seniors say they have done it.

Distracted driving is a big problem, leading to totally avoidable accidents, injuries and fatalities. About 16 percent of teen motor deaths are caused by distracted driving. No one thinks anything bad will happen to them if they text while driving, until it does happen.

We urge everyone, teens and adults who might be tempted to keep communicating, to put the phones away while you are behind the wheel.

Spirit of invention

THUMBS UP: The Minnesota Inventors Congress (MIXC) s going on this weekend in Redwood Falls, as it has every June for the past 55 years. The event has become a mecca for the inventive minds and entrepreneurial spirits who help make America great.

Instead of sitting around and wishing someone would invent a better way to do this or that, inventors actually get busy and figure it out. It's the same spirit that led Thomas Edison to test hundreds of different materials before coming up with the right kind of filament for the electric light bulb, or that led Alexander Graham Bell to find a way to turn sound waves into electronic impulses that could be sent over a wire.

We don't know if any Edisons or Bells are showing their ideas at this year MIC, but you never know. There could be. Thanks to the MIC?for fostering that spirit.

Eagles win state

THUMBS UP: Congratulations to the New Ulm Eagles, champions of the Class 2AA State High School League Softball Tournament. The Eagles won a thriller in extra innings against St. Anthony Village after trailing in seventh.

The Cathedral Greyhounds, who fell in the semifinals of the Class A tournament Thursday, bounced back Friday with a big win in the third place game.